Sen. David Vitter’s
2014 Report Card

These special statistics cover Vitter’s record during the 113th Congress (Jan 3, 2013-Jan 2, 2015) and compare him to other senators also serving at the end of the session. Last updated on Jan 12, 2015. Although Rep. Suzan DelBene [D-WA1], Rep. Thomas Massie [R-KY4], Rep. Donald Payne [D-NJ10], and Sen. Brian Schatz [D-HI] served in the 112th Congress, they took office within the last two months of the 112th Congress and here are grouped with other freshmen for the 113th Congress.

A higher or lower number below doesn’t necessarily make this legislator any better or worse, or more or less effective, than other Members of Congress. We present these statistics for you to understand the quantitative aspects of Vitter’s legislative career and make your own judgements based on what activities you think are important.

Keep in mind that there are many important aspects of being a legislator besides what can be measured, such as constituent services and performing oversight of the executive branch, which aren’t reflected here.

Only Members of Congress who sponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.

Working with the House

3rd most bills
among
Senate Republicans; tied with 1 other

The House and Senate often work on the same issue simultaneously by introducing companion bills in each chamber. 15 of Vitter’s bills and resolutions had a companion bill in the House. Working with a sponsor in the other chamber makes a bill more likely to be passed by both the House and Senate.

Ideology Score

8th most conservative
among
All Senators

Our unique ideology analysis assigns a score to Members of Congress according
to their legislative behavior by how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they cosponsor are to other Members of Congress.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in the 113th Congress is considered, the ideology score here may differ from Vitter’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Cosponsors

8th most cosponsors
among
Senate Republicans

Vitter’s bills and resolutions had 286 cosponsors in the 113th Congress. Securing cosponsors is an important part of getting support for a bill, although having more cosponsors does not always mean a bill will get a vote. View Bills »

A bill or joint resolution is considered enacted if it or an exactly identical bill to it is enacted as law. We only consider bills that the legislator was the primary sponsor of. While a legislator may lay claim to authoring other bills that became law, such as through incorporation into larger bills, these cases are difficult for us to track quantitatively.

Joining Bipartisan Bills

16th least bipartisan
among
Senate Republicans

Of the 237 bills that Vitter cosponsored, 32% were introduced by a legislator who was not a Republican.
View Cosponsored Bills »

Only Democratic and Republican Members of Congress who cosponsored more than 10 bills and resolutions are included in this statistic.

Committee Positions

16th lowest score
among
Serving 10+ Years; tied with 3 others

Vitter held a leadership position on 1
committee and 0
subcommittees, as either a chair (majority party) or ranking member (minority party), at the end of the session. For comparison to other Members of Congress, we assigned a score giving five points for each full committee leadership position and one point for each subcommittee leadership position. View Vitter’s Profile »

Leadership Score

18th worst score
among
Serving 10+ Years

Our unique leadership analysis looks at who is cosponsoring whose bills. A higher score
shows a greater ability to get cosponsors on bills.

For more, see our methodology. Note that because on this page only legislative activity in the 113th Congress is considered, the leadership score here may differ from Vitter’s score elsewhere on GovTrack.

Powerful Cosponsors

21st fewest bills
among
Serving 10+ Years; tied with 7 others

4 of Vitter’s bills and resolutions in the 113th Congress had a cosponsor who was a chair or ranking member of a committee that the bill was referred to. Getting support from committee leaders on relevant committees is a crucial step in moving legislation forward.

Government Transparency

GovTrack looked at whether Vitter supported any of 8 government transparency bills in the Senate that we identified in this session. We gave Vitter 0 points, based on one point for cosponsoring and three points for sponsoring any of these bills.

Additional Notes

The Speaker’s Votes: Missed votes are not computed for the Speaker of the House. According to current House rules, the Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings.” In practice this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes but is not considered absent.

Leadership/Ideology: The leadership and ideology scores are not displayed for Members of Congress who introduced fewer than 10 bills, or, for ideology, for Members of Congress that have a low leadership score, as there is usually not enough data in these cases to compute reliable leadership and ideology statistics.

Ranking Members (RkMembs): The chair of a committee is always selected from the political party that holds the most seats in the chamber, called the “majority party”. The “ranking member” (sometimes “RkMembs”) is the title given to the senior-most member of the committee not in the majority party.

Freshmen/Sophomores: Freshmen and sophomores are Members of Congress whose first term (in the same chamber at the end of the 113th Congress) was the 113th Congress (freshmen) or 112th (sophomores). Members of Congress who took office within the last few months of a Congress are considered freshmen in the next Congress as well.